106819 - quicksearch textbox loses focus if I backspace out of a search

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: MailNews: Message Display, defect)

Description

[Ben Ruppel]

From Bugzilla Helper:
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:0.9.5+)
Gecko/20011025
BuildID:    20011025

I know this might be a tough UI decision and one that may get marked wontfix,
but I think it deserves some consideration.  When one types in some data in the
quicksearch bar and backspaces to delete the first query, the thread pane goes
back to normal folder view and (from what I've seen in bug 103734) focus is
intentionally transferred to the thread pane.

Problem is, what if I just wanted to search for another term?  I have to go and
click on the quicksearch entry bar to be able to type again.  I think it would
be useful if focus was returned to the entry bar automatically.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.type a term in quicksearch and get results
2.press backspace to clear your first term
3.try to type in another term

Actual Results:  If you are not fast enough with your second term, the folder
view will go back to normal and you won't be able to just type in another term.

Expected Results:  Focus should remain in the quicksearch entry field.

Naving, I hope you don't mind me filing this right to you, but I think it's the
right thing to do.

Comment 1

[Navin Gupta]

Right now once the folder is loaded and msg is selected I have made it 
so that the focus goes to thread-pane. I can change it but it is something
debatable, some users may want the focus to go to the thread-pane because
they are done with the search. cc jglick on whether we should always keep focus 
on the textbox.

Comment 2

[scottputterman]

I think keeping focus on the textbox is the correct thing to do.  I think for
Quick Search we should assume they are deleting because they want to type
something else.  I think this helps support a case for having another way of
returning to the folder besides clicking on the folder or erasing the entry.

Comment 3

[Ben Ruppel]

>I think this helps support a case for having another way of
>returning to the folder besides clicking on the folder or erasing the entry.

Yeah, that's what I was thinking.  Some users might also think that clearing the
bar is the only way to exit.  What about a "Reset" button next to Advanced?  I
don't think people would miss the space that the entry bar would loose, how many
terms can they possibly search for?  Reset doesn't sound like the best term,
anyone have a better one?

Comment 4

[Navin Gupta]

Attachment: proposed fix

Comment 5

[Navin Gupta]

The fix is to let the focus stay on the textbox even if the text box is cleared.
if the user clicks on the selected folder to reload, then setfocus on 
thread-pane.

Comment 6

[Scott MacGregor]

Please get Jennifer to approve this new behavioral change then I'll put an
r/sr=mscott on it.

Comment 7

[jglick]

I agree with the requested behavior as well.

As for "Reset" type feature, yes, we might need to do this since I can see using 
backspace and folder selection as the only way to reload all headers might not 
be apparent to some users. I'd recommend "Clear" instead of "Reset" though (to 
the left of Advanced). Ben, can you file a separate bug on this issue and we can 
discuss it there? Thanks.

Comment 8

[Ben Ruppel]

Sure, glad to be of help.  Bug 107029.  And I went ahead and made it a blocker
of 106943.

Comment 9

[Scott MacGregor]

Comment on attachment 55270 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix

r=mscott

Comment 10

[Suresh]

Comment on attachment 55270 [details] [diff] [review]
proposed fix

r=suresh

Comment 11

[Navin Gupta]

fix checked in. 

Comment 12

[laurel]

OK using nov7 commercial trunk build: win98, mac OS X, linux rh6.2